Resin mistaken for Pine

I do not think it is. Pine is a flavor and resin is a mouthfeel. A very resiny and not piney beer is sunner kolsch. That's why I love it because the beer is sticky with it. In using a lot of hops that sticky feeling can seem buried under bitterness and an oily or very hop forward middle. When the hops take up too much of the mouthfeel the beer is not balanced. I digressed but back to pine. Over the years I am desensitized to pine. I now taste wood, spice , twigs and the last beer I had that made me think of pine was celebration. Now that beer is a little sticky but it's underneath a bigger slick bitterness.

 

There is bound to be confusion since most people have never tasted pine through drinking a tea or beer made with pine needles as an ingredient and probably fewer have ever tasted pine sap/resin/pitch from a pine tree.

For me, having done both, back in my childhood, there is a definite flavor profile difference which I've never tried to describe but which I usually recognize when I taste it. In part it has to do with intensity or the concentration of the flavors, sort of like the difference between having a beer aged on Vanilla Beans to get some vanilla included as a flavor and adding a teaspoon of Pure Vanilla Extract to 6 oz. of very fresh milk and tasting. (I've never tried adding Extract to a beer. BTW, it is not a good idea to just lick up a few drops of the Vanilla Extract. )

 

Mosaic in my experience often has plenty of pine.

 

While a lot of folks apparently pick up cat wee in Simcoe, that was the first hop that really lit me up with super pine. As for resin or using resin as a descriptor,I agree with @utopiajane , where it's sometimes the best way for me to describe that perceived stickiness I get. I will have to admit though, that for me at least, stickiness levels are sometimes highly suggestive to me through the appearance of a particular type of lacing (that really sticky, almost cotton candy looking lacing) that gets my brain thinking that "it's sticky".

I've had some "spruce" beer before (Alba Scots Pine) and surprisingly, it really didn't have a ton of pine flavor. Don't think something like "pine" can drop off due to age, or can it? Either way, seems like it was sticky without a ton of pine flavor.

 

Can't say as I've ever aged a spruce tip beer (e.g., Poor Richard's Tavern Ale from Yards) to see how it changes over time but yes there isn't a lot of strong pine flavor there. For me that's part of the difference, that intensity of the flavors. (I don't think I'm all that sensitive to "stickiness" of mouthfeel in beer so I don't remember picking that up. Time to try another I think.)

Off the top of my head, if I were picking two beers to try and illustrate the flavor difference between pine and pine resin I'd suggest the Poor Richard's and Dirt Wolf from Victory (although I don't think the Dirt Wolf has only Pine Resin floating around in there so that would make it a bit more challenging to sort out).

 

That's not quite pine to me. There's a uniquely hoppy evergreen quality that borders on weed and body odor, I think I've seen you refer to it as hop funk, and I get that a lot in mosaic.

I'll use the pine descriptor for fresh needles (DFH 60 Min); and resin for more of the sap (Bigfoot).

 

Back about a million years ago when Poor Richard's was in blue bottles, you could taste the piney spruce, or at least I could. Over the last few years, the spruce has definitely plummeted at Yards, IMHO. Dogfish's Pennsylvania Tuxedo is a much better current example of a spruce beer. Having detipped one of my spruce trees a year ago to make a spruce-based beer, I must say, Dogfish makes a better, more sprucey one. That aside, I too grew up climbing white and scotch pine trees, getting resin on my hands that wouldn't leave until it wore off, and am well familiar with both the odor and taste of terpenes. I don't find Dirt Wolf particularly piney, just overpriced. And to get back to topic, to me mosaic hops seem to impart a tropical fruity rather than piney taste. Is resiny the same as piney? Probably not, but to me it's a distinction without a difference, although you could probably split the different conifers into flavors if you wished (i.e. tastes more like Canadian Hemlock than Black Pine).

 

Blue bottle? Wow.... that does date you...

Agree, Dirt Wolf isn't the best example.

As for conifers having different flavors, my childhood experiences were dominated by the Piñon pine (and their "nuts") with a couple others mixed in there for variety. No question they are different.

The Tuxedo? Time for a quick trip to see if I can still find that beer to try.

 

Keep in mind flavors imparted to beer from hops varies depending on when the brewer adds the hops in the process (i.e. early additions for intense bittering or late/dry-hopping for aromas with less bitterness). So, the flavors of specific hop varieties can still vary quite a lot based on how the brewer uses them.

 

Haha maybe you're right and we should differentiate between pine and evergreen to give more accuracy.

Nice description of hop funk, add light pear aroma and lightest hint of pineapple and I think it's pretty close. Love that mosaic hop funk done right.

 

I'm not quite sure what this resin is, probably was in some beers I've had, but could not put a finger on it. To me, DIPAs have this chewyness/thicker feel than other's. Is this resin? Recently I've had some IPAs that have a pineyness note, but not really any chewyness in the feel.

Cheers!

 

Ever handle a pine tree, say fresh cut for Christmas? That sticky stuff is the resin.

 

I knew that, it smells nice, but I never tasted it, where I can recall. I knew a guy in Utah that would make a sauve out of it.

Cheers!

 

I remember the blue bottles being very pine tasting, almost to the point of overbearing. I have not had the new recipe. Jackie O's spruce is s really great beer and in my mouth much better than tuxedo due to being more subtle. Tuxedo is very good but a bit big on the flavor. I can get through one but won't open another for a few days. Don't know if age will change that or just make a malty spruce beer.

Enjoy

 

Much of our flavor perception is based upon aroma (what we smell).

For me:

• Pine = smell of pine needles
• Resin = smell of pine sap

I pick up a pine aroma/flavor from my homebrewed beers that feature Simcoe hops.

I have perceived resin in a number of commercial beers but I am uncertain what hop or combination of hops result in that aspect.

Cheers!

 

The beers I remember standing out as piney were two from Maine Brewing Co. Mo, and Peeper Ale. They're both outstanding brews. I don't remember how resiny they seemed though.

Perhaps they come across as piney because they're from the Pine Tree State?

 

I agree with what you said but found this surprising (about the cost). It is only about $42/case here in Pittsburgh which I consider a good price considering the quality (and compared to other DIPAs).

Yeah, I don't get pine with DirtWolf either but I am desensitized!

Cheers!

 

I don't remember what I last paid for a case of Dirt Wolf - got it at Save on Beer at Mars. Maybe I meant over-hyped rather than overpriced. Either way, I won't be buying more - I think Hop Ranch is much better.